Crop phenomics enables the collection of diverse plant traits for a large number of samples along different time scales, representing a greater data collection throughput compared with traditional measurements. Most modern crop phenomics use different sensors to collect reflective, emitted, and fluorescence signals, etc., from plant organs at different spatial and temporal resolutions. Such multi-modal, high-dimensional data not only accelerates basic research on crop physiology, genetics, and whole plant systems modeling, but also supports the optimization of field agronomic practices, internal environments of plant factories, and ultimately crop breeding. Major challenges and opportunities facing the current crop phenomics research community include developing community consensus or standards for data collection, management, sharing, and processing, developing capabilities to measure physiological parameters, and enabling farmers and breeders to effectively use phenomics in the field to directly support agricultural production.

The global food system must meet the increasing demand for food, fiber, and energy while reducing environmental impacts. The UN Food System Summit (UNFSS) has made a clear call to action for a global food systems transformation. We argue that three major discrepancies remain, potentially delaying the urgent implementation of the call to action. First, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are not sufficiently focused on agriculture, leading to funding allocation issues. Second, a mismatch of agroecology with technology innovations may slow scaling agroecological farming. Lastly, agricultural diversification must move beyond organic landscapes and into conventional agriculture. As a solution, principles of NbS should be clear on agricultural integration. Moreover, stakeholder awareness must increase that agroecology does not necessarily conflict with agricultural technologies. Future agricultural models must apply measures such as agricultural diversification in conjunction with technology innovations to then ascertain an overall timely and successful implementation of the UNFSS call to action.

Soil and foliar application are the most widely used methods for adding micronutrients to maize. High quality micronutrient fertilizers, however, are difficult to obtain in developing countries; micronutrient seed coatings are an attractive and practical alternative. We applied this approach to maize (Zea mays L.) to demonstrate the effects of boron (B), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo) and zinc (Zn) sulfates on maize germination, vigor, seedling growth, seed yield and seed quality as well as on seed microelement concentration. Seed coating was tested on three representative Chinese soil types (sandy, purple and lime soils). Compared to untreated controls, coating maize seeds with micronutrients significantly increased the seed emergence rate, seedling height, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, main root length, root number, above ground fresh biomass, above ground dry biomass, underground fresh biomass, underground dry biomass, ear thickness and yield in sandy, purple and lime soils. Coating maize seeds with micronutrients also significantly increased the yield and quality of maize seed compared to untreated controls including ear barren tip, ear length, ear thickness, grains/row, hundred seed weigh, and rows/ear. Also, B, Zn, Fe, Mn and Mo microelements accumulated in maize seed after coating the seed with micronutrients. Our findings indicate that micronutrient seed coating may improve nutrient uptake and production of maize hybrids.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) in wheat is one of the major food safety concerns worldwide. In this study, 70 characteristic precursive factors associated with environment and 6 agronomic practicing factors were explored, using historical data of 479 wheat fields in the Huang-Huai-hai, China. Results showed that DON concentrations influenced by air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and sunshine duration in the period from 17 days before flowering to 10 days before harvest. Rice crop rotation, straw returning, larger density of sowing, and lower latitude planting increased DON risk. Furthermore, an empirical model of DON prediction was established. The classification accuracy of internal and external validation were 87.73% (R2 = 0.62) and 80.21% (R2 = 0.60), respectively. This model is the first large-scale prediction of mycotoxin contamination in grain at harvest in China. It can be used to predict the risk of DON contamination for nearly 14 % of the global wheat supply.

This paper aims to solve the problems of the low quality and shallow depth of the traditional straw return method. According to the requirements of the new furrow burial and return agronomic model, a corn straw ditch-buried returning machine was designed that could simultaneously complete the processes of picking, conveying, ditching, soil-covering and pressing. Key components were theoretically analyzed and designed, such as the pickup device, ditching device and straw-guiding soil-covering and pressing device. Based on a field experiment, the main factors influencing the effects of straw picking, soil ditching and straw return were studied. Both forward speed and pickup device speed significantly affected the straw picking rate. The ditching area, ditching width consistency factor and ditching depth stability factor gradually decreased with increasing forward speed and gradually increased with increasing trenching device speed. There was a significant interaction among the forward speed, pickup device speed and ditching device speed. At a forward speed of 1.68 m/s, the picking device speed was 330 r/min, the ditching device speed was 290 r/min, and the highest straw return rate was 93.65%.

To better serve breeding of broccoli, the electrophysiological, morphological and transcriptomic profiling of the isogenic Ogura-CMS, DGMS and their maintainer fertile lines, were carried out by scanning electron microscopy, investigation of agronomic traits and RNA-sequencing analysis. The agronomic traits of plant height, length of the largest leaf, plant spread angle, single head weight, head width and stem diameter showed stronger performance in Ogura-CMS broccoli than in DGMS line or maintainer fertile line. However, the Ogura-CMS broccoli was poorer in the seed yield and seed germination than in the DGMS line and maintainer fertile line. Additionally, the DGMS broccoli had longer maturation and flowering periods than the Ogura-CMS and maintainer fertile lines. There were obvious differences in the honey gland, happening in the male sterility and fertile lines of broccoli. Additionally, the mechanism regulating Ogura-CMS and DGMS in broccoli was investigated using florets transcriptome analyses of the Ogura-CMS, DGMS and maintainer fertile lines. As a result, a total of 2670 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected, including 1054 up- and 1616 downregulated genes in the Ogura-CMS and DGMS lines compared to the maintainer fertile line. A number of functionally known genes involved in plant hormones (auxin, salicylic acid and brassinosteroid), five Mitochondrial Oxidative Phosphorylation (OXPHOS) genes of atp8, LOC106319879, LOC106324734, LOC106314622 and LOC106298585, and three upregulated genes (Lhcb1, Lhcb3 and Lhcb5) associated with the photosynthesis-antenna protein pathway, were obviously detected to be highly associated with reproductive development including flowering time, maturity and reproductive period in the Ogura-CMS and DGMS broccoli comparing to their maintainer fertile line. Our research would provide a comprehensive foundation for understanding the differences of electrophysiological, morphological and transcriptomic profiles in the Ogura-CMS, DGMS and maintainer broccoli, and as well as being beneficial to exploring the mechanism of male sterility in Brassica crops.

BACKGROUND: β-N-oxalyl-l-α,β-diaminopropionic acid (β-ODAP) is a physiological indicator in response to drying soil. However, how abscisic acid (ABA) modulates β-ODAP accumulation and its related agronomic characteristics in drought stressed grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) continue to be unclear. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of ABA addition on drought tolerance, agronomic characteristics and β-ODAP content in grass pea under drought stress.
RESULTS: Exogenous ABA significantly promoted ABA levels by 19.3% and 18.3% under moderate and severe drought stress, respectively, compared to CK (without ABA, used as control check treatment). ABA addition activated earlier trigger of non-hydraulic root-sourced signal at 69.1% field capacity (FC) (65.5% FC in CK) and accordingly prolonged its operation period to 45.6% FC (49.0% FC in CK). This phenomenon was mechanically associated with the physiological mediation of ABA, where its addition significantly promoted the activities of leaf superoxide dismutase, catalase and peroxidase enzymes and the biosynthesis of leaf proline, simultaneously lowering the accumulation of malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide under moderate and severe stresses. Interestingly, ABA application significantly increased seed β-ODAP content by 21.7% and 21.3% under moderate and severe drought stress, but did not change leaf β-ODAP content. Furthermore, ABA application produced similar shoot biomass and grain yield as control groups.
CONCLUSIONS: Exogenous ABA improved the drought adaptability of grass pea and promoted the synthesis of β-ODAP in seeds but not in leaves. Our findings provide novel insights into the agronomic role of ABA in relation to β-ODAP enrichment in grass pea subjected to drought stress. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

The mechanism of arsenic (As) immobilization in soils is crucial for improving photosynthetic pigments and antioxidants in food crops. The effects of soil amendments with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), biochar (BC), selenium (Se), sulfur (S) and Si-gel on the concentrations of chlorophyll, carotenoid, proline, malondialdehyde (MDA), and the activity of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), guaiacol peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) were studied in BARI pea (Pisum sativum ) under As stress. Soil amendments with AMF, Se, Si-gel and S enhanced chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll contents by 31-35% and 60-75%, respectively. Likewise, CAT activity was increased by 24-46% in BC, AMF, Se, Si-gel and S-treated pea, respectively. APX and POD activity was also found to be enriched with the treatment of BC, AMF and Se. In contrast, the content of MDA and proline was found lower than that of control in peas. These findings indicate that oxidative damage, osmotic stress and cell injury were possibly reduced in As-stressed peas. Particularly, AMF and Se both were comparatively more potential in comparison to BC. Thus, soil amendments with AMF, BC and Se are significantly important for improving antioxidant enzyme activity of food crops grown in soil with elevated As levels.

The synthesis methodology, particle size and shape, dose optimization, and toxicity studies of nano-fertilizers are vital prior to their field application. This study investigates the comparative response of chemically synthesized and biologically synthesized iron oxide nanorods (NRs) using moringa olefera along with bulk FeCl3 on summer maize (Zea mays). It is found that FeCl3 salt and chemically synthesized iron oxides NRs caused growth retardation and impaired plant physiological and anti-oxidative activities at a concentration higher than 25 mg/L due to toxicity by over accumulation. While iron released form biologically synthesized NRs have shown significantly positive results even at 50 mg/L due to their low toxicity, an improved leaf area (13%), number of leaves per plant (26%), total chlorophyll content (80%) and nitrate content (6%) with biologically synthesized NRs are obtained. Moreover, the plant anti-oxidative activity also increased on treatment with biologically synthesized NRs because of their ability to form a complex with metal ions. These findings suggest that biologically synthesized iron oxides NRs are an efficient iron source and can last for a long time. Thus, proving that nanofertilizer are required to have specific surface chemistry to release the nutrient in an appropriate concentration for better plant growth.

In Asia, cassava (Manihot esculenta) is cultivated by more than 8 million farmers, driving the rural economy of many countries. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in partnership with national agricultural research institutes (NARIs), instigated breeding and agronomic research in Asia, 1983. The breeding program has successfully released high-yielding cultivars resulting in an average yield increase from 13.0 t ha-1 in 1996 to 21.3 t ha-1 in 2016, with significant economic benefits. Following the success in increasing yields, cassava breeding has turned its focus to higher-value traits, such as waxy cassava, to reach new market niches. More recently, building resistance to invasive pests and diseases has become a top priority due to the emergent threat of cassava mosaic disease (CMD). The agronomic research involves driving profitability with advanced technologies focusing on better agronomic management practices thereby maintaining sustainable production systems. Remote sensing technologies are being tested for trait discovery and large-scale field evaluation of cassava. In summary, cassava breeding in Asia is driven by a combination of food and market demand with technological innovations to increase the productivity. Further, exploration in the potential of data-driven agriculture is needed to empower researchers and producers for sustainable advancement.